Recruiting in Jersey
by bardsgrl4evr
Summary: En route 2 a possible new recruit, Rogue & Ray are attacked by Sabretooth & end up recuperating in Jersey. While there, Ray's case catches the interest of the ducklings &House discovers he's not the only cynic in the world. AU: Scott isn't dead
1. Chapter 1

"Clear the way! I want him in Trauma One and put on an IV stat!" Shouts and commands were heard down the hall as nurses and visitors looked up to see the happenings.

"Ray? Ray, sugah, it'll be okay. Just hang in there." Marie was jogging beside the gurney, holding onto her bunkmate's hand. His face was disfigured, beaten, and bleeding from the claw marks scraped from his ears to his chin.

"We need his temperature control! Prep ER, we're getting these rocks out now! There may be internal bleeding, let's go people! And would someone get the girlfriend out of here!" At that, a couple pairs of hands latched onto Rogue's shoulders, slowing her speed, but she fought against them.

"No! I can't leave him," she released her hold of Ray's hand nevertheless, knowing it was pointless. They wouldn't understand.

"Come on. Let the doctors take care of him." Marie had, without realizing it, shrugged off the hands and was now standing in the doorway of the room they had taken Ray, watching as they hooked up machine after machine into the young man.

A doctor noticed her stare and nodded his head to the nurse, who shut the door in Marie's face without a word, cutting off her sight of her injured friend. She stood a moment more, when a younger doctor approached her. He peeked into the window a split second before the shades shut, long enough to see the leading physician cutting the patient's shirt off, which was now soaked in blood.

"Did you come in with him?" He inquired. Marie could only nod as she fought inwardly not to recall what had happened; she knew that she was going to asked that soon enough but the painful memory was something she didn't wish to remember.

"Why don't you come with me and we'll get you some juice and a bite of food?" Marie murmured a reply but he failed to catch it.

"I'm sorry?" He leaned closer to her and she stepped away automatically.

"Phone," Marie repeated. "I need a phone." She turned her head towards him and he recoiled. There was a gash from the bottom of her eye lid that trailed down to her dimples. It was as if she was crying blood.

"Nurse!" The young doctor bellowed and Marie shook her head in protest.

"No, no nurse. I'm fine." One ran up and shrieked at the sight of the young woman. "I just need a phone," she pleaded.

"We can't let you wander around like that. Just let us stop the bleeding," he persuaded her.

"Gloves, make sure you wear gloves," Marie insisted wishing he would just let her be.

The doctor nodded, "of course. Sheila, I'll need extra bandages in 131."

"Yes doctor," the petite woman replied before scurrying off.

Marie followed the young man into an empty examination room and settled on top of the medical bed reluctantly, watching the doctor pull a metal tray with antiseptics and such atop of it.

"Okay, now why don't you tell me what happen?" He snapped a set of plastic gloves on and grabbed some swab from a cabinet, before he lifted Marie's chine and made to wipe away the trail of blood on her face and neck.

She flinched upon contact and he hesitated, waiting a moment. The young woman noticed the doctor's pause and she dropped her eyes, "sorry."

"Would you like one of the nurses—"

"No, it's all right," Rogue cut off him before he could finish his question. The doctor nodded, secretly wondering if she had been a victim of abuse with her flinching from touch and the old bruises he could make out through the tattered mesh cover she wore.

"Now after I wipe the blood up, I'm going put some cream on the gashes, to prevent infection. It may sting but, if it gets to be too painful, let me know. Okay?"

Marie sat straight up, with a slight lift of her chin. She was an X-Men, she had logged countless hours in the Danger Room. Surely she could manage a bit of medical pain.

The doctor held her head high, eyeing the damage. He wiped away the dried blood, applying just enough pressure to get it off without irritating the tender area. He tossed the dirty swab onto the metal tray and grabbed another, pouring a clear liquid on top of it. He slid the cotton over the open sore slowly. Marie hissed immediately.

"Hurt?" The doctor inquired.

"It's cold." She countered. He laughed aloud as he wiped away the excess.

"Not the typical response."

"Well, I'm not your typical teen," Marie stated with automatically.

"I gauged that by the nasty mark on your face." Her smirk fell but he continued, "How did you get that by the way? Too clean to be from a bar fight. Drunks tend to be sloppier in their handiwork."

She squirmed and fidgeted in her seat, "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Well, it was an animal, we'll need to test for rabies," that comment froze the young mutant in her movements. "Was it an animal?"

His words echoed in the deep recesses of her mind, _Was is an animal?_

_You could say that,_ she scoffed to herself. The look on her face seemed to answer his question for the doctor leaned back with a sigh.

Marie trailed the tip of her finger down her gash, noting it was still bleeding. He handed a wet gauze to her to wipe off her hand as he moved over to the wound on her face. It took only a moment for him to bandage it and soon he was disposing of the used cleaning materials in the waste basket.

"You're not going to tell me what happened, are you?" he smiled weakly, it not quite reaching his eyes.

"Thanks for the patch work doc," Marie stated, completely ignoring his question. "But I've got a phone call to make and a room mate to check on." She left the room with a turn of her heel and he could hear the young woman inquire from a nurse passing by the whereabouts of the nearest payphone.

He sat on the spinning chair a bit longer, musing and brooding to himself until he caught the attention of one of his colleagues.

"That the girlfriend?" Foreman inquired, poking his head into the examining room.

"Hm?" the Australian man only heard half of the question, distracted at might have happened.

"Girl with skunk hair, she came in with the animal attack, right?"

"Yeah, yeah she did."

Foreman nodded and glanced down the hall where she stood, peeking into one of the display windows.

"She attacked too?"

Chase shrugged, "I'd say so. She wouldn't tell me."

"He clearly got the worse end of the deal," Foreman stated bitterly. "Guess chivalry isn't as dead as we think."

The doctors had finally left Ray's side and Marie slipped in, stealing a peak at the chart hanging nearby.

She wasn't a medical major like Jean or a biochemist like Dr. McCoy, but she memorize some of the notes, in case something was amiss she could relay to the Professor when she called them shortly. Things like "anti-body rejection", "evidence of prolonged physical abuse", were scrawled onto the chart in the a hurried fashion. She scoffed at that last note, all the battle scars from the Danger Room sessions probably threw the doctors for a loop.

"How are you holding up B-Man?" Marie asked her sleeping roommate as she returned the chart to its place. He moaned in response and sparks traveled down his exhausted body, causing the machines to go way wire. She sighed, quickly removing a glove and resting the tips of her fingers on his forehead. For a moment Marie could hear his thoughts and Ray hers.

_Am I gonna die? Man, I don't want to die. What about Rogue? Man, she's gonna kill me. Well I'm dying anyways, guess it don't matter. Man, this really sucks. I got my ass handed to me by a cat, a really big, ugly cat. (Ray) _

_Sugah, you're not gonna die. Doctors are taking care of you. (Marie) _

The electric current that danced through Ray's body surged through hers after that thought and soon sparks were bouncing from her very fingertips. Her teammate slumped back against the bed, knocked completely unconscious by the energy pulling of her powers. The machines beeped back to normal as she broke the connection, breathing heavily with exertion.

"Just rest now Ray. Creed will get what's coming to him, I promise you that." Marie moved across to the door, casting her friend one last glance before seeking out the pay phone she had gotten direction for earlier.


	2. Chapter 2

(BOC)

Ray's shocking ability fried out two payphones before Marie was finally able to place a call without incident. The phone rang once, twice, three times before someone picked up and Rogue was actually relieved to hear Scott's voice on the other end. "Xavier's Institution, Summers speaking."

"Scott, it's Rogue." Her tone said more in those three words than thought possible.

"Rogue? What's going on? Why are you calling from some hospital? What happened to the mission?"

"Scott, calm down. The mission has just been put on hold a bit. But listen, I need you to patch me through to Dr. McCoy."

"Sure thing Rogue, hang on." The line clicked and before the first ring could finish, the doctor picked up.

"Dr. McCoy here. What scientific break through can I do for you?" Rogue smiled in spite of the reason she was calling.

"Hey doc, it's Rogue."

"Ahh, my brilliant chemistry bond. How are things? Everything going swimmingly with the recruitment?"

"Actually, we ran into an old friend and now we're at some Princeton Teaching Hospital in Jersey."

"A hospital? Oh dear. Is your friend doing all right?"

"I suspect Victor is fine, rapid healing and all."

"Oh, ooohh. I see. Well how is young Berserker?"

"He's still in critical condition, and there are some things on his medical chart that don't seem right, or good for that matter." Marie twirled the metal phone cord around her fingers anxiously.

"What sort of things?" She sighed, repeating the notes the doctors had written to her fuzzy professor.

Meanwhile, In the Think Tank

"What's with this animal attack? Are we certain that's what it was?" Cameron inquired as she passed House his cup of coffee before settling between her fellow colleagues.

House caught Chase eyeing his caffeinated beverage with longing and slammed his cane against the desk. The young man jumped and his eyes flew to his superior guiltily. House held a cheeky look on his face as Foreman spoke, "we found an abundant amount of feline hair on John Doe and the wounds are consistent with those of a large animal, a mountain lion perhaps."

"What's so unusual about a cat attack?" House asked impatiently as he twirled his cane around his fingers. "Aside from the fact we're in Jersey and over an hour from the nearest one."

"It's not the attack; it's the reaction the machines were having to him. The electricity pulsing through his brain was off the charts, the EKG machine fried itself out, and we lost power in that room three times." Cameron read off her note sheet.

"Okay, since when do we link hospital malfunctions to patients that come in?"

"When they're a Martin case," Cuddy waltzed into the room and every head turned to her.

"Martin case?" Chase questioned.

House lost the smirk in his eyes as his boss' announcement. "How long have you known?"

"I was handed the results by Wilson just now." Cuddy passed a folder to him, paying no attention to the confused looks on the faces of the ducklings as House glanced through the contents without a word. Cameron's beeper went off, shattering the silence that had engulfed the room.

"Is that for the boy?" Cameron nodded at House's question as she moved to get up. "Don't answer it," he ordered her.

"But-"

"From this point on, none of you are to have anything to do with that patient." Cuddy's forceful tone struck the younger woman quiet.

House shut the folder and tucked it under his arm as he stood. "And Wilson?"

"He's too emotionally involved to be completely objective," he nodded at Cuddy's answer. "I have a specialist coming. He should be here within the hour," at that House hobbled out the door and Cuddy turned her attention to the remaining persons.

"The three of you will have Dr. House's others patients and his clinic duty divided amongst you until otherwise informed. Should any of you find yourself discussing the Martin Doe patient, I will suspend your medical licenses indefinitely and slap a lawsuit on you so big your grandchildren will be paying it. Do I make myself clear?" The older woman's glare was certainly intimidating. Chase gulped audibly as Foreman's eyes narrowed slightly in response to her threat. Cameron merely nodded her compliance and Cuddy left the room without another word.

Foreman was the first speak, once Cuddy was out of sight. "You'd think if they were going to label it, they wouldn't make the name so obvious. I mean honestly any ninny could connect the two together."

Cameron turned her to him, "what are you going on about?"

"You don't know what Martin case means, do you?" Foreman asked astonished and she shook her head. He waved to Chase who shook his head as well and Foreman slapped his forehead with his hand. How could they be so ignorant, so unaware.

"Okay, basically if the patient is a Martin case, that means the patient is a mutant." Foreman explained slowly, eyes shifting about, monitoring any reentrance of House or Cuddy. The other two doctors were shocked, struck speechless. Mutants in Jersey, who would have thought?


	3. Chapter 3

Recruiting in Jersey chapter three 

House limped his way into the room, the clink of his cane against the tile startling the young woman curled in the chair the hospital room had been furnished with. She watched from her position, eyes locked on House as he moved across the room to stand beside of the patient's bed. Gregory House wasn't a man of compassion like Wilson and Chase, he'd be the first to tell you of that, but as he looked over the young man in the bed, something stirred inside of him. Something similar to longing, or maybe regret. He couldn't be sure.

"Ahh, the young man with the shocking personality. No improvement by the looks of things. But you just got here, give it time, we'll set you straight." House commented in his usual snarky tone. "Cuddy must like you; she's got a specialist on the way."

Marie untangled her limbs, groaning softly as various parts of her body popped. "Why do you need a specialist? It was simple a cat attack." She demanded.

"That's does seem a bit much, doesn't it? Well, then since the he'll be here anyways, we'll have the nice specialist have a look at Grease Lightning's very interesting body make up. See if he can't do something about that pesky condition."

"What condition," Marie narrowed her eyes at the doctor, who paid the girl's look no mind.

"Oh, nothing serious, he's just got an extra strand or two in his genes." House statement in a dismissive tone then portrayed a shocked look on his face, hand cover his mouth. "Golly gee, you didn't know, did you? Ooops." He wobbled his way out of the room as Marie seethed inwardly, fists clenched and jaw tight.

"He's not sick, you quack," she hissed after House's retreating form.

Raven Darkholm, formerly known as Mystique, watched the exchange nearby in her 'real form', what she now looked like since being 'cured.' She had been studying articles and reports about a 'specialist' for nearly six months. A man with no name, a doctor of sorts really, who only worked on 'Martin' cases. Raven knew he was behind the numerous disappearances of mutants across the states. And now after weeks of planning and laying the trap, he was coming here, to meet his end. She smiled devilishly as the image of Victor ripping the pathetic human limb from limb entered her mind. But first, she had to make sure the x-kids were safely kept somewhere else. She wasn't going to let Xavier and her children get caught up in the aftermath. This was going to be it for the ex-shape shifter. The finale after all her years of fighting for mutant liberation.

Raven straightened the shirt she had taken from uniform room, pulling the wrinkles out and wiggling a bit. She was still getting used to having to wear 'real' clothes. They just didn't seem to fit her just right like all of her 'morphed' outfits did. She wasn't a vain person, or picky, Raven just liked to be able to move about comfortably.

She jerked on the strings around her medical sweats with a slight huff, the-one-size-fits-most waist line barely catching on her hips. House cast an uninterested look towards her as he hobbled by and she fought back the urge to knock his teeth in.

Instead, she moved across the hall, entering Ray's room quietly.

"You come back with more imaginary diseases you think he's got?" Marie hissed out, not looking up from Ray's sleeping form.

Raven shook her head, "I'm here to help you."

Marie whirled around at the sound of her voice, eyes widening with shock one instant then narrowing with rage in the next. She turned away from the older woman, dismissing her but Raven would have nothing of it.

"Marie, there's a specialist on his way, he's going to-"

"_Cure_ Ray, yeh I know."

"He'll do more than just that, I'm afraid." Raven crossed to the bed, flipping through Ray's medical notes, waiting for the realization to settle into the teen.

"If they've gotten a hold of your blood, they'll test it too. And when they find out your secret, young Berserker here won't be the one stripped of his mutation."

Marie was stone still. There's no way the woman was speaking the truth. The cure may still be out of the streets, but no respectable hospital would dare administer it, certainly without the patients' permission. Then again, the government did attack a school of mutants to obtain 'test subjects', force injects wouldn't be too far of a stretch.

"What do you get out of this?" She wasn't an idiot. Marie knew Raven worked and gave advice for a price.

"The specialist." The Institute graduate cast her glance onto the once blue-toned woman. She may not have the yellow slits for eyes, or the ocean colored skin, but she was still the same person the X-Men had fought against at Liberty Island, and although she could no longer alter her image with a thought, she wasn't any less dangerous. Raven bore the look of weariness, too many sleepless nights and long days. She carried the history of a hard life in her eyes, in her stance, but she was still kicking and fighting for survival like so many others.

"What are you doing in here?" Raven and Marie both turned to see the angered face of Cuddy standing in the doorway. "I asked you a question."

Marie noticed the glint in Raven's eyes heighten and decided to intercede before this new arrival ended up black and, well, blue. "She was looking for Dr. House." Cuddy barely glanced at Marie when she spoke, and instead pointed to the door, indicating for Raven to leave.

"Well, clearly he isn't here. You ought to try the clinic, where he's scheduled to be at. Of course you would know this if you looked at the board before wandering into patients' rooms when they're clearing in no condition for such rude intrusions."

Marie looked to Raven and with a slight nod of her head, all was told. Were they telepaths, the thought _Good luck_ would be exchanged. Instead they settled for a look that said at that needed to be said. Raven nodded her compliance to Cuddy and left the room without a word, readying for the next stage of the plan. She had some calls to make and a few favors to cash in.


End file.
